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Like many of you, there has been an AvantGo sized hole in my content viewing for several weeks now. Over the course of many years and many mobile devices, AvantGo was the application I depended upon to bring me my fix of news off the internet, but as of the end of this last summer, AvantGo is gone. It was more then an RSS service, it was a porthole into the vast amount of information available on the net even back when it wasn’t quite so vast. The best thing about AvantGo was that it was so controllable. You could sync it from your PC and it would download your channels and just your channels via your desktop internet hookup, featuring entire stories formatted just for the service. No need to use up valuable data traffic when all you get are a headline and a couple lines with a link that says Continue Reading Online?. With AvantGo it was all there for you, the ideal lunchtime companion (unless Megan Fox and Bill Gates stop by to tear a pheasant with me).

In my search for a way to regain the reading pleasure I lost when AvantGo shut down, I have tried a LOT of RSS readers on my Windows Mobile device. Sadly it is a reality of RSS that any story with a jump in it (just like this one) will require more downloading, but there are still some out there that post full stories in one go, but that has nothing to do with the app. Today I wish to discuss the pros and cons of three of these applications; Newsbreak by Ilium Software ($19.95), GoNews Touch by SBSH Software ($14.95 but currently on sale in our software store) and SPB News by SPB Software ($19.95). Can any of these replace AvantGo in the hearts and headlines of newsjunkies? Get the straight dope after the jump.

Newsbreak

The first of the three, Newsbreak, also has the most “old school” appearance. Downright stark and minimalist compared to the others. It makes sense therefore that Newsbreak is also the oldest of the three I am looking at, winning a slew of awards back in 2005/2006. Unfortunately, it has also changed very little from those glory days, in both looks and features. However, it does offer a Today screen plugin, which can be very useful if you are into “Headline Hopping”

In terms of content, you can subscribe to RSS feeds by URL, by importing a list of RSS streams (OPML files, which are hard to find these days) or you can select from a list of known channels provided by Newsbreak, which when augmented by the online additions on Ilium’s website is the most extensive default list of the three. Some really excellent blogs are easily available through Newsbreak which is very convenient and saves a lot of hunting. For example, Newsbreak offers the blogs of both Mary-Jo Foley and Michael Miller as well as several Treo blogs in their list.

Once inside a channel, the presentation is again quite bare bones…lots of white space with default newspaper icons. It can be a bit difficult to find a certain story as you scroll down as everything begins to look the same after a while. On top of that, it sometimes has a little trouble rendering on my Treo Pro, causing odd text losses.

As often happens with mobile RSS readers, photos can get tricky in Newsbreak as they can dominate the page, requiring a lot of scrolling to get to text. Over all however the text is easy to read and well formatted. I wish I had the option of making the font a bit smaller, but that is an AvantGo feature that most RSS readers lack.

I am quite unhappy with content updating in Newsbreak as it is very problematic in a number of ways.

The fact that it gives a tally of total stories and the number unread next to each channel is good, but the fact that you have no idea how much data is being downloaded during the update or how far along it is really bothers me. All you get is a blue arrow in one corner to show you that the update is taking place. Each channel’s RSS icon then turns from white to orange once it is updated. A nice touch however is that from within a channel you can refresh just that channel, rather then all of them.

My other problem with updating Newsbreak is more serious. While hooked up via USB to ActiveSync I updated my channels, and rather then using the ActiveSync link it used the 3G connection, burning through about a MB of data doing so. On top of that, while it is possible to turn auto updating off, you have no way of controlling which data connection Newsbreak uses to update. For anyone who is not on an unlimited data plan (such as myself) this is simply unacceptable.

Performance wise it updates reasonably quickly and stories open promptly, but has a slight tendency to freeze. Three times while I was testing it over the last few days, Newsbreak locked up and required the application to be killed from the task menu and then restarted. One exceptional feature of Newsbreak is the ability to download and play podcasts just like other stories, which could be very useful for some people.

Newsbreak has most of the standard features currently available in RSS readers such as showing only unread headlines and looking for certain keywords in stories and then notifying you when they appear.

Newsbreak is certainly a solid, functional RSS reader, but it’s dated GUI and disturbing updating and presentation problems mean I cannot recommend it wholeheartedly, especially for the price. However, if you listen to a lot of Podcasts or like an excellent default RSS feed list, this could very easily be the RSS Reader for you.

GoNews Touch

GoNews Touch is definitely the sharpest, best looking of the RSS readers I am looking at today. It has a very distinctive look and style when compared with other RSS apps, and it’s icons and elements are consistent with other SBSH software, such as Calendar Touch. That attention to detail by a company  across it’s product line really appeals to the fashionista in me. In fact, it I have any complaint with the GoNews GUI, it is that it is a bit TOO stylized. Take for example the “hand in the folder” icon visible in the lower right hand corner of the screen. It is not terribly intuitive that the icon opens the Categories screen. In fact, I only figured that out by trial and error. The stack of books on the right is supposed to be a channel list or menu…I think. Anyway it opens a menu, in this case, the new channel menu. Also, rather than a more standard checkmark to signify OK or a selection, GoNews uses a thumbs up symbol. Again, cute…but am I rating the option or selecting it? I am all for software looking good and having a unique style, but flash can get in the way of usability at times.

GoNews also makes use of Categories very well, making it easier to find the news you want when you want it.

As with Newsbreak, you can bring in content by subscribing to RSS feeds by URL, by importing OPML files or you can selecting from GoNews’ list of known channels which is quite sparce, only offering a handful of options per catagory. However, an exceptional feature of GoNews is that you can sync the application with your Google Reader RSS feeds which really opens up enormous possibilities if you use Google Reader. 

Within a channel, the stories are presented well, using whatever picture was included with the original story as an icon. I found this very helpful, even though the pictures were often too small to provide much information. It broke up the page nicely however. I also tend to prefer a dark background over a light one for this kind of list. The high contrast allows for quick, dirty readability when you don’t need to do that much scanning. Again however, the icons don’t help much…the arrow pointing at the phone is to go back, I worked that out. The middle icon for updating is clear however, partially due to the use of the ActiveSync icon.

Each story is very nicely presented indeed, with the graphics seldom overwhelming the text or slowing it down. Performance is crisp and snappy. Again, no way to tweak the fonts however. A nice touch is that you can use touch gestures to handle certain basic tasks, like moving to the next article in a channel.

Again I am unhappy with the way this application updates. You get symbols next to each channel as they are updating, and an hourglass at the top that eventually shows a percentage completed. However, updates took a long time, noticeably longer then the other two apps I am reviewing here, and the update process was very unresponsive. From the time I hit the little Cancel icon at the middle of the toolbar (yeah, I guessed that one too, I’m on a roll) it took a good 3 to 5 minutes for it to actually stop updating. The process was also very balky, I got nearly double the errors with GoNews that I did either of the other two apps. That is not acceptable, as far as I am concerned, since an RSS Reader is one of those daily use programs that I need to simply WORK. Another problem is that it doesn’t allow you to update just a single channel, which is a pain when you are in a hurry and just want the NBA scores, for example.

GoNews allows you to turn off auto update or set it to only auto update when on ActiveSync, just like Newsbreak, but again it doesn’t give you any further control over what connection is used. However, GoNews always used the ActiveSync connection when I manually updated, ignoring the wireless.

Overall I commend GoNews for it’s sense of style (once I figured out the icons), touchscreen optomization, excellent presentation and it’s exceptional Google Reader integration, but it’s balky, obtuse updating process makes me include a few large reservations with my recommendation. If you are a big Google Reader user, then this is the Mobile App for you…if not, you may wish to try it out for a while to see if it really suits your needs, keeping in mind SBSH offers a very generous 30 day money back guarantee.

SPB News

SPB News, formerly known as Insight, is another touchscreen optimized RSS Reader. It is not quite as stylish or icon oriented as GoNews Touch, but it is still quite modern looking (save that it still lists MobilitySite as Aximsite). SPB News opts for text over icons, which I admit makes it a bit more usable if less pretty. Like GoNews, the channel list is clear and easy to read however, with unique logos for each channel. Each story also uses the original graphics as an icon.

Standard content selection rules apply and you can bring in content by subscribing to RSS feeds by URL, by importing OPML files or you can selecting from a list of known channels, which in this case is quite good, if not up to Newsbreak’s standards.

The two areas that SPB News really shines in my opinion are in the presentation of stories and updating. The articles are well presented with very little interference from the graphics. In addition, the font size can be adjusted globally, allowing you to enlarge or shrink the text of the stories, which I love. In the two views above you can see the difference font size can make on how the screen is presented. It may seem like a small thing, but it is the little things that make an application like this easier to read and enjoy.

Best of all, SPB News is a joy in terms of updating, as it allows you far more options then than other applications. You can choose to update a single channel or all of them, or you can choose just to finish loading partially updated articles in case you needed to stop in the middle. In the channel menu, each channel shows an icon during the update, indicating if it is currently being updated, if it is waiting to be updated, or if there was an error.

During the update, you get a progress bar and a could of how many channels have been updated out of the total in addition to a tabulation of how much data you are using. Even better, you can opt to force SPB News to ask permission before accessing a data source you need to pay for, such as 3G, rather then ActiveSync or WiFi. This is a feature which I feel should be included in all applications that could very quickly and quietly run through your available data.

SPB News makes good use of the touchscreen, also allowing gestures to control basic functions. Overall it performs well though it still tends to have a few updating errors now and again. Not as many as GoNews, but enough to be annoying. Again, I want an application like this to be “fire and forget”. Nothing is worse then sitting down to read later in the day and seeing just a bunch of Error messages.

While SPB News may lack some of the more advanced features found in other apps such as podcast use or Google Reader integration, it’s powerful and customizable updating process and exceptional article presentation make it my personal choice in RSS Reader. It ain’t AvantGo, but it will have to do.

Conclusion

Newsbreak

PRO

• Podcasts
• Great default channel list
• Solid performance

CON

• Old fashioned GUI
• Fair article formatting
• Limited and wasteful updating process

GoNews

PRO

• Google Reader integration
• Stylish and classy GUI integrates with other SBSH products
• Good article formatting

CON

• Confusing icons
• Mediocre performance
• Poor and slow updating process

SPB News

PRO

• Exceptional article formatting
• Customizable and transparent updating process
• Excellent GUI

CON

• Bare Bones feature set
• Minor performance problems
• Still says “Aximsite”

DISCLOSURE

For this review I used a purchased copy of SPB News, a demo copy of Newsbreak and was provided with a review copy of GoNews Touch.

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Zealot (476 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).